The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew emerged from a foggy period between 1590 and 1592, when William Shakespeare first arrived in London. Scholars struggle to pin down the exact date because the play exists alongside another anonymous work called A Shrew. This second play shares almost the same plot but uses different names for characters like Bianca and Katherina. The relationship between these two texts remains one of the most debated topics in Elizabethan theater history. Some experts believe A Shrew is a bad quarto, meaning actors tried to reconstruct Shakespeare's original script from memory after seeing it performed. Others argue that both plays were based on a lost third source known as Ur-Shrew. The debate began in earnest during the eighteenth century when Alexander Pope included extracts from A Shrew into his edition of Shakespeare's works. By 1850, Samuel Hickson had concluded that The Shrew was the original text and A Shrew was derived from it. In 1926, Peter Alexander proposed the bad quarto theory again, suggesting that the reporter forgot details or mixed lines from other plays like Tamburlaine to fill gaps. Stephen Roy Miller offered a modern perspective in 1998, arguing that someone else adapted the material rather than simply misremembering it. He noted that character names changed and basic plot points shifted, which suggests deliberate revision rather than faulty recall. H.J. Oliver suggested that an early draft existed where Hortensio was just a friend of Petruchio before Shakespeare rewrote him into a suitor named Litio. This rewrite created confusion in later scenes where characters seem to know things they should not. The play was first published in the First Folio of 1623, but a quarto version appeared in 1631 under the title A Wittie and Pleasant Comedie Called The Taming of the Shrew. The Stationers' Register entry for A Shrew on the 2nd of May 1594 provides a hard deadline for when the original must have been written. Anthony Chute's Beauty Dishonoured, published in June 1593, contains a line referencing Kate coming to kiss her husband, proving The Shrew was already known by then. Keir Elam argues the play could not have been written earlier than 1591 because Shakespeare used John Florio's Second Fruits for Italian idioms. Abraham Ortelius' map of Italy from 1590 also influenced how Padua was placed geographically in the script.
A drunken tinker named Christopher Sly sits at the head of an alehouse table when a mischievous nobleman tricks him into believing he is actually a lord. The nobleman has actors perform a play specifically to distract Sly from his wife, who is really Bartholomew dressed as a woman. This framing device sets the stage for the main story inside the play within the play. Katherina Minola, the elder daughter of Baptista Minola, stands defiant against any man who tries to court her. Her sharp tongue and willful nature make her an unworthy option for marriage in the eyes of many suitors like Tranio. Men such as Hortensio and Gremio are eager to marry Bianca instead, the younger sister seen as the ideal woman. Baptista decrees that Bianca cannot wed until Katherina finds a husband first. Lucentio arrives in Padua to attend university but falls in love with Bianca immediately. He disguises himself as a Latin tutor named Cambio to woo her behind Baptista's back while his servant Tranio pretends to be Lucentio. Petruchio enters from Verona accompanied by his manservant Grumio. He explains that since his father died, he wants to enjoy life and get married. Hortensio recruits Petruchio to pursue Katherina so that Bianca becomes available for other suitors. At their wedding ceremony, Petruchio strikes the priest and drinks the communion wine to create an embarrassing scene. Afterward, he takes Katherina to his home against her will to begin the taming process. She is refused food and clothing because nothing meets his standards; perfectly cooked meat is too hot and beautiful dresses do not fit right. On their way back to Padua, she agrees with him when he claims the sun is actually the moon. They meet Vincentio on the road, and Katherina apologizes to him after Petruchio tells her he is a man rather than a woman. Back in Padua, Lucentio and Tranio convince a pedant to pretend to be Vincentio to confirm the dowry for Bianca. The real Vincentio arrives later and finds the pedant claiming to be Lucentio's father. The confusion ends when the real Lucentio appears with Bianca to reveal everything to Baptista. In the final scene, three newly married couples stand before the audience while men argue about whose wife is most obedient. Katherina is the only one who comes when called, winning the wager for Petruchio.
George Bernard Shaw wrote a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette dated the 8th of June 1888 calling the play one vile insult to womanhood from start to finish. Critics have reacted with heartily supportive or altogether disgusted responses since its first appearance between 1588 and 1594. Phyllis Rackin argues that the play seems to prefigure modern assumptions about women and validate them as timeless truths. Stevie Davies notes that feelings of unease and embarrassment dominate reactions, accompanied by a desire to prove Shakespeare did not mean what he seemed to say. Marjorie Garber suggests Shakespeare created the Induction to distance the audience from the misogyny in the main story. G.R. Hibbard points out that arranged marriages were giving way to romantic unions during the period, making audiences less tolerant of harsh treatment. John Fletcher wrote The Woman's Prize or The Tamer Tamed around 1611 as a sequel where Petruchio remarries after Katherina dies. His new wife successfully tames him, reversing the roles so the tamer becomes the tamed. Lynda Boose writes that Fletcher's response reflects discomfort that Shrew has characteristically provoked in men. George Bernard Shaw described Kate's domination as altogether disgusting to modern sensibility. Leah S. Marcus believes A Shrew is an earlier version but acknowledges most scholars reject it because the women are not satisfactorily tamed there. She calls A Shrew more progressive than The Shrew and argues scholars dismiss it because they find patriarchal violence difficult to accept. Conall Morrison directed an RSC production in 2008 that argued the play precedes twentieth-century feminist condemnation. Philippa Kelly states that the body of the boy actor in Elizabethan times would have created sexual indeterminacy undermining the patriarchal narrative. Jonathan Miller directed a BBC Television Shakespeare adaptation in 1980 which omitted the Christopher Sly episodes entirely. Stanley Wells criticized this omission for stripping the play of its best poetry and dramatic dimension. Coppélia Kahn suggests the transformation of Christopher Sly from drunken lout to noble lord hints that Kate's switch may also be deceptive. Graham Holderness argues the play contains a crudely reactionary dogma of masculine supremacy while working on that ideology to force self-contradiction.
Katherina rebukes Hortensio and Gremio in Act One Scene One, prompting Hortensio to reply with From all such devils good Lord deliver us. Her father Baptista refers to her as thou hilding of a devilish spirit in Act Two Scene One. Petruchio attacks the function of Katherina's language by vowing to misinterpret whatever she says regardless of meaning. Margaret Jane Kidnie describes this scene as demonstrating the slipperiness of language itself. In Act Three Scene Two, Petruchio explains to everyone present that Katherina is now literally his property. Tita French Baumlin focuses on his puns calling her a cake or a cat to objectify her subtly. He compares her to a hawk often employing an overarching hunting metaphor saying My falcon now is sharp and passing empty. Katherina appropriates this method herself leading to a trading of insults rife with animal imagery in Act Two Scene One where she calls him a turtle and a crab. Only one hundred lines later after declaring independence from language, the exchange changes completely. Petruchio overtly tests his wife's subjection by demanding she concede to views even when demonstrably unreasonable. The lesson becomes clear: Petruchio holds absolute authority to rename their world. In Act Four Scene Five, Katherina switches words moon and sun and concedes she will agree with whatever he says no matter how absurd. What he says must take priority over what Katherina knows according to Kidnie. Her language shifts from earlier vernacular to accepting his rhetoric instead of her own. Sly speaks in prose until he begins to accept his new role as lord then switches to blank verse and adopts the royal we. Tranio and Lucentio appear speaking highly artificial style of blank verse full of classical allusions setting them apart from the straightforward language of the Induction.
G.I. Duthie wrote in 1943 that Shakespeare emphasizes here the foolishness of trying to destroy order through the final speech. Meryl Streep played Katherina at the Shakespeare in the Park festival in 1978 saying really what matters is that they have an incredible passion and love. John C. Bean sees the speech as the final stage in Kate's change of heart toward Petruchio where characters lose themselves and emerge liberated into bonds of love. Mary Pickford winks at Bianca during Sam Taylor's 1929 film version indicating she does not mean a word of what she is saying. Elizabeth Taylor delivers the speech in Franco Zeffirelli's 1967 version as though it were her own idea causing Petruchio to run after her when she leaves the room. Phyllis Rackin reads the speech ironically pointing out lines focus on the woman's body while the role was played by a young boy actor. Philippa Kelly says declaring women's passivity so extensively might take on agency rebuking feminine codes of silence. Coppélia Kahn argues the speech reveals he has failed to tame her spirit remains mischievously free despite outward compliance. William Empson suggests Katherina was originally performed by an adult male actor rather than a young boy making the end blatant irony. Robert B. Heilman argues the whole wager scene falls within farce with responses largely mechanical and symmetry automatic. H.J. Oliver emphasizes the play within the play presented only after preliminaries encouraged us to take it as farce. Emma Smith suggests a fifth interpretation where Petruchio and Kate collude together to plot this set piece speech learned off pat. George Bernard Shaw wrote no man with any decency of feeling can sit it out without being extremely ashamed of lord-of-creation moral implied.
Cole Porter created the musical Kiss Me Kate which became one of the most famous adaptations of the play for stage and screen. McLintock! appeared in 1963 as an American Western comedy film starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in the 1967 film version directed by Franco Zeffirelli. The 1999 high-school comedy film 10 Things I Hate About You loosely based on the play brought the story to modern teenage audiences. Deliver Us from Eva released in 2003 is another romantic comedy adaptation drawing from the original narrative. Sam Taylor produced a feature film version in 1929 featuring Mary Pickford who winked at Bianca during the final speech. Jonathan Miller directed a BBC Television Shakespeare adaptation in 1980 that omitted the Christopher Sly episodes entirely. Arthur Rackham illustrated Act Five Scene Two showing Katherina as the only wife responding to her husband in Tales from Shakespeare edited by Charles Lamb and Mary Cowden Clarke. Augustus Egg painted Taming of the Shrew in 1860 depicting the couple's dynamic visually. Williams' cartoon from Caricature magazine titled Tameing a Shrew or Petruchio's Patent Family Bedstead Gags Thumscrews appeared in 1815 satirizing the domestic violence themes. Edward Robert Hughes painted Catherine and Petruchio in 1898 capturing their relationship through visual art. James Dromgole Linton created an engraving of Act Four Scene One where Petruchio rejects the bridal dinner for Katherina. Julius Caesar Ibbetson illustrated Act Four Scene Five showing the sun moon conversation from The Boydell Shakespeare Prints engraved by Isaac Taylor.
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Common questions
When was The Taming of the Shrew written by William Shakespeare?
The play emerged from a foggy period between 1590 and 1592 when William Shakespeare first arrived in London. A Stationers Register entry for A Shrew on the 2nd of May 1594 provides a hard deadline for when the original must have been written.
What is the relationship between The Taming of the Shrew and A Shrew?
Scholars struggle to pin down the exact date because the play exists alongside another anonymous work called A Shrew which shares almost the same plot but uses different names for characters like Bianca and Katherina. Some experts believe A Shrew is a bad quarto meaning actors tried to reconstruct Shakespeare's original script from memory after seeing it performed while others argue that both plays were based on a lost third source known as Ur-Shrew.
Who are the main characters in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare?
Katherina Minola stands defiant against any man who tries to court her while her father Baptista decrees that Bianca cannot wed until Katherina finds a husband first. Petruchio enters from Verona accompanied by his manservant Grumio to pursue Katherina so that Bianca becomes available for other suitors like Lucentio and Tranio.
How did critics react to The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare over time?
George Bernard Shaw wrote a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette dated the 8th of June 1888 calling the play one vile insult to womanhood from start to finish. Critics have reacted with heartily supportive or altogether disgusted responses since its first appearance between 1588 and 1594 with some arguing the play contains a crudely reactionary dogma of masculine supremacy.
What adaptations exist of The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare?
Cole Porter created the musical Kiss Me Kate which became one of the most famous adaptations of the play for stage and screen. McLintock! appeared in 1963 as an American Western comedy film starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara while Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in the 1967 film version directed by Franco Zeffirelli.